


Ashen Demon

by orphan_account



Series: Sylvix Week 2019 [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Catherine is described but not named, M/M, Sleeping Beauty Elements, Snow White AU, Sylvix Week (Fire Emblem), Sylvix Week 2019, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 16:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21039014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Don't hurt me but the Sylvix doesn't start for 1750 words and I didn't mean to.I found out I have a much better time writing Jeralt and Sothis than I do Byleth.Also Dwarves aren't really Dwarves as we think of them normally? They're like, a human subspecies that has much better access and control over magic and most of their territories reside within Faerghus.





	Ashen Demon

**Author's Note:**

> Don't hurt me but the Sylvix doesn't start for 1750 words and I didn't mean to. 
> 
> I found out I have a much better time writing Jeralt and Sothis than I do Byleth.
> 
> Also Dwarves aren't really Dwarves as we think of them normally? They're like, a human subspecies that has much better access and control over magic and most of their territories reside within Faerghus.

###  Day Three: <strike>Modern AU</strike> / Fairytales / <strike>Letters</strike>

The Archbishop Rhea drew the heavy velvet curtains back from from an ornate oval mirror. She had owned it for over a thousand years, and for a thousand years it had only given her one answer for this question.

"Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the strongest of them all?"

Instead of Rhea's reflection, a young boy who appeared roughly fifteen with tanned skin, dark wavy hair, and dark brown eyes stood in her place.

"Good morn Archbishop. How fair you?"

"I fair well Cyril. Now, show me my answer. Who is the strongest in the land?"

"O-of course Archbishop.

Cyril disappeared in swirling cloud grey clouds and where Rhea had expected her reflection, a young woman with pale white skin and dark teal hair. Her expressionless face bore into Rhea's soul.

"Who is she?" The Archbishop screeched.

The girl disappeared like smoke and Cyril reappeared. "They're known as the Ashen Demon, Lady Rhea."

The resulting scream could be heard echoing throughout the Monastery.

"Bring me Seteth immediately!"

-

Byleth sat in front of the mercenary camp's fire, staring into the flames. Despite its warmth, ice made its way down their spine, and they felt the distinct feeling of being watched. Glancing around, nothing caught their eye, and the feeling suddenly left them.

_ "What a strange magic, I have not felt something like it for millennia." _

Byleth jumped, the voice of a young girl coming out of nowhere.

_ "I am not some young girl! I am ageless, timeless, I am The Beginning!" _

Byleth frantically looked for the source of the voice.

_ "Cease your useless looking around, for I am within you."  _

They stopped, and stared back at the fire, just waiting to see what would happen next.

_ "That was ancient locating magic. It is familiar, yet I fail to remember why. Hmm, how strange, all this thinking has got me feeling so… incredibly… tired…" _

Byleth waited for several moments, but the voice never returned. A soundless sigh escaped their lips as they thought they what just happened. Were they daydreaming? Having a hallucination? Whatever the case, they had probably been staring at the fire far too long. It was but embers now, and the chill of evening was beginning to set in.

"Hey kiddo, you should probably be heading to bed. Is your tent set up?" Their father walked over from another bench where several other mercenaries were in various states of drunkenness. 

They nodded and stood up to head over to where their tent was. They didn't really understand the odd look their father was giving them as they walked away, they rarely did, but this one seemed different for some reason.

They dreamed of that war again. Of a green haired woman fighting a beast of a man, but instead of waking up at the end like normal, they found themselves in front of a throne where a seemingly young girl was dozing. But she wasn't young, was she? Somehow they knew this was who they had heard earlier, but they couldn't explain why they knew.

"Because I am a part of you."

Piercing green eyes stared at them as the girl was suddenly awake.

"And stop calling me girl. You may call me… Sothis. Yes, that's my name, I could not seem to recall it until now. I wonder why that is?" Sothis stretched out her arms above her as she yawned. "I am so incredibly tired. I am going back to sleep. You should probably wake up though, it sounds as though someone is calling for you.

_ "Byleth!"  _ Their father's voice was echoing through the throne room, sounding distant, yet so close at the same time. 

"You really should wake up." Sothis called out with their eyes closed, drifting off into slumber again.

"Byleth! There you are." Their tent flap was open and and their father looked completely frantic, sweat drops on his forehead, a slight flush to his cheeks. Byleth sat up from their bed roll feeling mildly concerned.

"The camp is under attack by the Knights of Seiros. I don't know why they're here, but we need to leave now."

Byleth dressed quickly and grabbed the pack that kept their essentials before leaving the tent behind. It was absolute chaos outside of their tent and they were surprised they hadn’t woken sooner from all of the noise. They followed closely behind their father, who was leading them in the opposite direction of the noise and and fires and clashing of weapons.

“Find me the Ashen Demon!” A woman’s voice called out, and Byleth mistakenly looked behind her at the source of the voice. There across the clearing they had camped stood a blonde knight with sharp eyes and a sword that glowed orange. She pointed the glowing weapon at them after catching Byleth’s face in the glow of the fires. “They’re heading to the East! Alois, follow them!”

Jeralt cursed loudly and reached back to grab Byleth’s arm tightly, near dragging them as fast as he could towards the horses. Throwing Byleth towards theirs and they hopped up the steed and took off, knowing their father would be close behind. It was unfortunate that they were in Kingdom territory, for they didn’t know the landscape or the territories beyond some knowledge they’d gathered in the last town. All they knew right now was that they were in Galatea territory and heading east would take them into the Alliance. They could see the mountains that made the border off in the distance, but they were some ways away. 

Byleth looked behind to see that yes, their father was close behind, but another man with brown hair and armor was only several horse lengths behind them.

“You don’t want to do this Alois!” Their fathered yelled. That must’ve been the other man, did their father somehow know them?

“Jeralt the Bladebreaker? That can’t be possible! You died in that fire!”

“Exactly what I wanted the church to think. Now what do the Knights of Seiros want with my daughter?”

“The Archbishop asked us to bring them in, any means necessary, we weren’t given any details.” A dozen hoofbeats passed. “Wait, the Ashen Demon is your daughter?”

“I still wish people wouldn’t refer to them that way, but yes, this is my one and only kid.”

Byleth’s horse burst out of the forest line, only to immediately begin to halt as they came to a sheer cliff face. They stopped at the edge, and turned their horse around to where their father and the knight named Alois faced each other.

“I can’t go back to Rhea without her heart, Jeralt. She doesn’t tolerate failure, you know that.”

Jeralt shakes his head and laughs bitterly. “Rhea never has learned to accept things out of her control. Byleth has no heart for you to give her, Alois. Rhea did something to her, and she has no heartbeat.” Byleth raised a hand to their chest, as if they needed the confirmation that it doesn’t beat like everyone else's. Byleth recalls the many times they laid their head on their father’s chest as a young child, just to listen to the thumping behind his ribs.

Alois looked towards the woods and stared intently at the shadows “No one has followed us, as repayment to you, Jeralt the Bladebreaker, for all of your service and for everything you have taught me, I will take the heart of a wild boar and present it as the Ashen Demon’s. However, no one must see your daughter again,” he said in a low voice. “They must flee and assume a new identity, and you as well, should you go with them. I will not tell anyone that they are your child, Jeralt.” Alois pulls the reins of his horse and moves to turn back into the forest. “If anyone finds out that I let your daughter live, I’ll lose my head.” He breaks out into a trot, then a gallop as he makes his way back into the forest, leaving Jeralt and Byleth alone on the cliff face.

Byleth furrows their brow as they look to their father. What would they do? Where would they go? The life of a mercenary was one they were used to, and that will help with getting by, but to not get recognised? They grab a strand of their teal hair which is so different from any other person they have ever seen. Without thinking much of it, Byleth grabs their dagger from their waist and begins roughly chopping it into a shorter hairstyle.

“Hey Byleth… so I’ve had to disappear once before--what are you doing?”

Byleth lets a large chunk of hair float off into the wind and cocks their head to the side. Showing off the new, shorter look.

Jeralt lets out a fond chuckle. “Well, I guess a change of looks will be necessary in your case. I’ll fix that up for you when we settle for the night. We should probably also head north and into Sreng if we can it’s the closest place that is out of the reach of the Church. Although just being north might be enough of a deterrent with the cold.”

Nodding sharply, Byleth turns their horse to the north, and begins to trot. They already missed their longer hair and shivered at the cool wind now blowing around their ears.

_ “You won’t be able to hide for long unless you can counter that locating spell.”  _ Sothis adds in out of nowhere. Byleth managed not to jump out of their skin this time.

Right, that was what lead the Knights of Seiros to them in the first place.

_ “I  _ suppose  _ I can do something about it. I do need you to live if I am to reside in your body.” _

The air feels filled with static charge and their body like a lightning spell is flowing through them.

_ “There, easy enough, that should stop the spell from being able to locate you. If not, well, hopefully you’ll be far enough away that no one can come look from you.” _

Byleth shook their head, hoping that what Sothis did would work.

_ “Have you so little faith? I am a goddess!” _

Byleth rolled their eyes then looked towards the horizon. They had long travels ahead of them.

_ “Fine, ignore me, see if I ever do anything for you again.” _

Byleth hummed in acknowledgement, feeling that the threat was more empty than not. Sothis did reside in their body after all. 

_ “I resent that!” _

-

A few days’ travel away, there were seven dwarvenkind heading to work. They were young, and all had been sent on behalf of their families to work for the prince in hopes of raising their relationship with the human that would one day rule their lands. They all lived together in a large cottage not far from the manor the prince resided at and made the walk between every morning and night. The prince insisted on treating them as friends rather than the political pawns they were and while they had some reservations at first, soon most all had begun to call him ‘Dimitri’ instead of ‘Your Highness.’ The exceptions were Dedue, a man from the Duscur region, who insisted on propriety, and Felix, who only called him ‘Boar.’ Dimitri hadn’t seemed to mind though, and took it as a term of endearment from the prickly dwarf.

“Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! It’s off to work we go!” Annette sang as she skipped up to Mercedes on their way to the prince’s manor from their cottage.

Felix frowned from his spot alongside Sylvain. “Must you be so loud first thing in the morning?”

“Let the lady sing!” Sylvain put his arm around Felix’s shoulders and he could feel his shoulders tense beneath him. Odd. “A beautiful voice, from a beautiful woman, on this beautiful morning! Can’t imagine a better way to start the day.” He turned to give Annette a playful wink.

“Your flattery won’t get you anywhere!” Annette said as she grabbed Mercedes’ hand and pulled it up to kiss her knuckles. Mercedes’ giggled as she leaned in to kiss her girlfriend's cheek.

“Can’t fault a guy for trying.”

“ _ Way  _ too early for this.” Felix grumbled. 

Sylvain squeezed Felix as he started leaning more of his weight onto him. “Come on now,” he said into Felix’s ear. “Don’t be like that, you know I’ve only got eyes for you.”

Felix shoved Sylvain off of him and hurried to catch up to Ashe, who was walking along with Dedue and Ingrid. His cheeks were bright red and Sylvain smiled at his back. He must be in quite the mood if he’s willing to listen to Ashe and Ingrid share stories of knights.

“You could just be with him, you know, it’s obvious you both love each other.” Mercedes said from beside him. Annette had wandered up to the other four of their little group.

Sylvain sighed. He knew he was transparent. Felix was too. "We would like to, but we can’t.” He sighed again, turning his gaze to his friend and the way his hair lit up inky blue in the morning light.

“Yes, yes, heirs and all that, but have you not considered surrogates?” Mercedes asked.

“Only if you’re offering,” Sylvain replied with his signature half-cocked grin. “Only a woman as beautiful as yourself could do for such a task, but you're a noblewoman yourself, what about your own heirs?”

Mercedes giggled. “Well I certainly wouldn’t be opposed. I do care a lot for both of you. It could be a mutually benefitting agreement, we provide you with your heirs, if you help us provide our own”

“Wait, what?” Sylvain stopped in his tracks.

“I’ve talked to Annette, and if it means you two can have your happiness we’d be glad to help. I’ll talk to you more about it  _ if  _ you talk to Felix.”

“What?” Sylvain repeated dumbly.

“Come now, we have a prince to tutor!”

Sylvain groaned. It was way too early.

Dedue was in charge of the kitchens and prepared a simple breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, and tea for everyone. Prince Dimitri insisted on all of them eating together, so they sat around a table in the kitchens and chatted somewhat sleepily as they took their time waking up.

Sylvain watched Felix as he slowly made his way through his breakfast. He was the slowest to rise of all of them, and wouldn't be functional until his third cup of Faerghus Breakfast. It was amusing, watching him lazily pushing the oatmeal about as he tried to follow along with the conversation and Sylvain wanted to have mornings like this with him forever. Would Felix be open to the idea of a surrogate? What about their parents? Their whole situation was unprecedented and Sylvain hadn't heard much in the way of other Dwarven nobles with his _ proclivities.  _ Mercedes had an older brother, so heirs weren't really a problem for her, but Annette was an only child. What did her mother think of the situation? He didn't know how things would work for them, but he knew his father wouldn't accept his relationship with Felix, surrogate or not. Sylvain glared down at his oatmeal for the rest of breakfast, missing the concerned looks Ashe and Mercedes were giving him.

Mercedes and Annette dealt with the Prince's first bout of tutoring, each dealing with Faith and Reason respectively. Not that the Prince was much good at either, but he really did try. Especially since even a simple healing or fire spell could make or break surviving through the night on your own in the forest in some cases.

Sylvain took the opportunity to pull Felix into the empty training room so they could talk. Ashe wouldn't be setting up the archery range until well after they were done going through lance and sword with Dimitri, and was in the kitchens helping Dedue prep items for lunch and dinner in the meantime. Not that Sylvain and Felix didn't have minor upkeep of their own to do, but it could wait. This conversation needed to happen before Sylvain over thought it too much.

"What couldn't wait until later to talk about?" Felix crossed his arms over his chest in mock frustration. His eyes were narrowed as he watched Sylvain fidget under his gaze.

"So uh, Mercedes came to me with an interesting idea." Sylvain got right to the point. "She, um, was hoping one of us could help provide her and Annette with an heir for at least Annette's household. I'm assuming that Emile will be taking over for Mercedes’ side of things." Well he tried to get to the point. This was part of the point and Sylvain needed to start somewhere.

"Uh-huh, and… that's it?" Felix looked like he knew more than Sylvain did, but that was also the norm.

"And, she said she and Annette would also help us with our heir problem if we stop being idiots and just be together. Well that's not  _ quite _ how she said it but it was definitely implied." Sylvain looked down at the soft ground of the training area. Goddess, this was an idiotic idea, coming to him like this. "You know I've loved you for years now, and I'm certain you feel the same, but we never quite fleshed out how things could work and this definitely isn't going to be some magic cure-all for how we deal with our parents." Sylvain rambled, walking over to a bench. He needed to sit down. He doesn't think he can handle the rejection if he isn't sitting down. 

He's almost at the bench when Felix grabs him by the arm and whips him around. He's blushing to his ears and Sylvain wants to see that everyday for the rest of his life. 

"You're an idiot."

Oh, Sylvain knew it. Knew this wasn't a good idea and now he's ruined everything.

"We're not even properly dating and you're bringing up kids?"

"Well, we're not dating properly because we seem to think it can go nowhere because we need to settle down with moderately pretty wives to give us heirs. I mean, there's a lot else that could and will be a problem, but that's the main one isn't it?"

Felix's face managed to get even redder the longer Sylvain talked. "You're an absolute idiot, but I love you, you're right on that." Felix turned around and stomped over to the door, turning back once more before crossing the threshold. "Take me on a proper date before bringing up kids again, idiot," he slammed the door behind him as he left.

Sylvain waited for a couple minutes before heading out himself, trying to contain all of his his excitement. He had a date to plan.

-

Jeralt and Byleth had been making their way north now for several days. They had stopped once in a small town to trade out their clothes for different and warmer ones, but otherwise stayed away from large settlements. They were going to be coming up near Fhirdiad soon, but Jeralt knew to stay far from it. The Church of Seiros was strong there and it wouldn't be wise to be seen so soon despite how different Byleth looked now. He wouldn't lie and say he wouldn't miss those beautiful teal locks, but the new haircut suited them, and would help with keeping out of the eye of the church.

The two of them were about to set up camp for the night, and man do those nights come early in the north, when their horses started to get anxious. It only took a moment from then for a black beast to tear its way through the trees as if they were twigs. A giant paw swatted towards Byleth and Jeralt didn't even think as he put himself between it and Byleth, getting flung to the side as soon as it hit. He stood up and grabbed his sword before turning around and thrusting at the beast with as much force as he could.

Byleth also had a sword out, drawing the monsters attention towards themselves as Jeralt hit the first blow. The creature bellowed a roar that had Jeralt's ears ringing but they couldn't stop now. He brought his sword against the beast again and again, noticing it was getting more and more difficult to raise it every time, but this thing had gone after Byleth and that was unforgivable.

With a final cry the beast collapsed, its corpse fading into black soot the wind carried away. The last thing Jeralt saw was Byleth standing over him, tears in their eyes. "This is the first time I've seen you cry." 

Everything went black.


End file.
